1. Favorite live album:
Scenes From New York. Budokan and Score might be better, but LSFNY is still my favorite.
2. Live versions better than studio tracks:
"The Killing Hand," from Live at the Marquee, is the most obvious one, but any WDADU song sung by LaBrie is better than the Dominici studio versions.
3. Live versions worse than the studio tracks:
"Take the Time," especially the performances where Portnoy "sings" the first verse.
4. Songs DT should play more often; play less:
I remember marking out when they played "The Killing Hand" live in 2002. I wouldn't mind if they played WDADU songs not part of their medleys. "Home" and "Strange Deja Vu" would be cool too. I never want to hear "Hollow Years" again.
5. Covers as good or better than the original; covers that sucked:
"Perfect Strangers" is as good as the original, even more shockingly so because it is a live version. They have several others which are maybe a tad worse than the original ("Love Lies Bleeding," "Stargazer," the whole Dark Side of the Moon bootleg, etc.). I don't think the whole Number of the Beast bootleg worked because of the one-guitar arrangement.
6. Albums that would have been better if certain songs were omitted:
Falling Into Infinity would have been better if "Anna Lee" and "Take Away My Pain" were left on the cutting room floor. Black Clouds and Silver Linings would have been better without "The Best of Times." Every album has a mediocre track or two except for Images and Words, but I chose the ones that I find most cringeworthy.
7. Albums that would have been better if certain songs were added:
The songs that were showcased on the "Five Years In A Lifetime" DVD I assume were written at the same time as the FII tracks, while not great, were better than the ones mentioned above. The demo "You Or Me" was certainly (at least lyrically) better than the Desmond Child-rewrite of "You Not Me." "To Live Forever," while predating even IAW, was too good not to be an album track. It might not have fit Awake's style and maybe wasn't good enough for IAW, but it was better than almost everything on FII.
8. Dream lineup for the band:
LaBrie-Petrucci-Myung-Portnoy-Moore. Too much musical masturbation by Rudess, and I miss Moore's lyric contributions.
9."Evening with..." shows or who would I like them to tour with:
I like the solo, three-hour shows with the intermission. I don't like the ProgNation or the co-headlining tours because the set isn't long enough, and I am not familiar with the openers and they've never really won me over, except for maybe Symphony X (a little). I wouldn't want anybody too prog; maybe a harder symphonic band like Epica would be good. It wouldn't happen, because they'd rather headline smaller joints in the U.S., although they were willing to be third on a bill with Machine Head before the tour got cancelled.
10. How many new songs would I like to hear:
No more than half of any new album, unless they somehow create a third masterpiece this late in their career. I remember how pissed people were when they went to see Maiden and got A Matter of Life and Death in order, in its entirety, and only "Hallowed Be Thy Name" from Number of the Beast.
11. Albums I want represented:
Any new album, IAW, A, SFAM, SDOIT, TOT, BCASL.